Hack-and-slash games generally offer traditional, old-school gameplay loops revolving around melee-focused combat. These games are often fast-paced, accessible experiences, and their gameplay is commonly fused with the genre of action role-playing games.
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When combined with ARPGs, especially, hack-and-slash games tend to feature an inventory system and a great deal of loot to find. This often results in build-crafting gameplay that can add a dash of strategic choices to an otherwise basic gameplay loop. For the sake of variety, games such as Diablo, Path Of Exile, and other household names have been excluded.
6 Halls Of Torment
An Arena-Survival Rogue-Lite With An Old-School Diablo Aesthetic
Halls of Torment
- Released
- September 24, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Chasing Carrots
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
This arena-survival rogue-lite plays like one of the many Vampire Survivors clones to have been released in the wake of its popularity. Players roam around a relatively cut-and-paste map, hacking through hordes of enemies in an effort to survive for thirty minutes.
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The game's old-school art-style is clearly an homage to the older Diablo games and, while Halls Of Torment isn't quite up to par with classic ARPGs such as Diablo 2, it's a worthwhile distraction for fans of the aesthetic and Vampire Survivors gameplay alike. Similar to Vampire Survivors, much of the fun in Halls Of Torment comes down to the loot, offering an addictively satisfying loop that tends to get stale once players have exhausted the potential strategies.
5 Into The Necrovale
An ARPG Rogue-Lite With Diverse Loot
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2024
- Developer(s): Casey Clyde
- Genre: Rogue-Lite
Featuring a subtle visual-style with crunchy pixel-art graphics and a quiet atmosphere, Into The Necrovale is a simplistic hack-and-slash dungeon-crawling rogue-lite. Despite its simple gameplay, Into The Necrovale is elevated by its massive variety of unique items for players to loot.
Into The Necrovale is a small and affordable title for fans of ARPG gameplay and rogue-lite structures. It's not an incredibly unique rogue-lite, especially when compared to other games on the market, but the solid hack-and-slash combat and diversity of loot makes for a worthwhile experience.
4 Chronicon
A Deep, Granular ARPG With Chaotic Combat
Chronicon
Simplistic pixel-art and a basic user-interface make Chronicon easy to pass at first-glance, but players that dig a little deeper will find a deep, granular character progression system with a great deal of customization available to the player. This allows for tremendous build-crafting that borders on sandbox, especially in combination with the dizzying array of items.
Chronicon's combat is chaotic hack-and-slash at its best and, like many action-RPGs, success relies relatively heavily on a character's build. As mentioned, though, the fun of Chronicon comes from working on and perfecting each build, and the four distinct classes make it a replayable experience.
3 Torchlight 2
A Diablo-Style Romp Through A Colorful Fantasy World
Torchlight 2
Torchlight 2 is similar to the games it's inspired by, predominantly Diablo 2, featuring a gameplay loop that centers around taking on quests and battling large groups of enemies across the land and through dangerous dungeons. Like Diablo, Torchlight 2 is an ARPG with a simple and intuitive combat system, build-crafting, and a tremendous amount of items to loot.
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Unlike Diablo, Torchlight takes place in a bright and colorful world with a cartoon visual style that's upbeat and lightweight. This makes Torchlight a much friendlier experience, but it may turn away fans of Diablo's darker tones. Overall, Torchlight 2 offers a hack-and-slash, ARPG experience that blends homage with unique ideas and a vivid world that's fun to explore.
2 Mortal Sin
A First-Person Hack-And-Slash Dungeon-Crawl With Unique Visuals
Mortal Sin
Though its art-style may be an assault on the eyes for some with its obtrusive colors and aggressive visual effects, Mortal Sin is a crunchy, wholly satisfying experience. Mortal Sin is a first-person action rogue-like with an ensemble of strange character designs and unsettling imagery, with excellent melee combat and a variety of unique weapons.
Mortal Sin is primarily a hack-and-slash game, though at times it can feel more like a beat 'em up, relying on combo-based gameplay. Each weapon is tremendously expressive, offering players a sense of excitement and discovery whenever they find a new one, and there are over thirty of these weapons in the game's Early Access state. Its visuals may be an acquired taste, but those that judge it purely by its aesthetic may be doing themselves a disservice, considering the high level of craft that's on display beneath the surface.
1 Grim Dawn
An Expansive And Wholly Ambitious Action-RPG
Grim Dawn
Fans of old-school action-RPGs will find plenty to love within the world of Grim Dawn, an indie ARPG with hack-and-slash combat and hundreds of items to find and collect. Grim Dawn is old-fashioned in its design, focusing its efforts on granular build-crafting supported by its variety of loot, skills, and crafting system.
Grim Dawn also features a great many quests and a richly-detailed world that makes exploration all the more rewarding and keeps things from getting stale. Despite nearing ten years old at the time of writing, Grim Dawn is still receiving meaningful updates. Furthermore, the game features online co-op for those who don't like to journey alone. While those that haven't taken the time to enjoy classic ARPGs such as Diablo 2 should certainly pay a visit there first, Grim Dawn should prove a welcome sight for veterans of the genre.
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